Blank Page

“I bought a new journal this week because my old one had filled up, and I had more time this morning than usual to linger with God before heading in to the day. So I pour myself a cup of coffee, sit down on the couch, and pull out the journal. I always feel strange about writing on the first page of a new journal – all those, clean, white pages, nothing yet having been set down. It feels momentous, kind of like a new beginning. Or at least a new era. What will unfold? And what shall I put on the first page? I always have this feeling that it needs to be significant. After all, this is the opening page of a new book in my life, the next chapter with God. It seems to deserve something so weighty. Something transcendent.

“Looking down at the blank page, I quietly ask God in my heart, What needs to go here?

“You know what he said.

“My love.

“So that is what I write down. That is all I write on the opening page. Two words. “My love.’ It is more than enough. Whatever else gets written in this journal, whatever stories told, whatever prayers, all the processing of life, let it all come under this. Let it be a continuation of this, His Love.”

Psalm 19.11-14 the Message

Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh!Keep me from stupid sins,from thinking I can take over your work;Then I can start this day sun-washed,scrubbed clean of the grime of sin.These are the words in my mouth;these are what I chew on and pray.Accept them when I place themon the morning altar,O God, my Altar-Rock,God, Priest-of-My-Altar

What are the first words you’ll write -on this fresh, clean-slate, blank-page of a New Year?